


Even When The Earth Is Crumbling

by one_and_only



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Dysfunctional Relationships, F/M, Gotta Get Out meets Heartache On The Big Screen, I'm Sorry, Sad, Weird, bye, don't enjoy it too much that would be concerning, enjoy yourselves, have fun friends, read it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-12
Updated: 2014-06-12
Packaged: 2018-02-04 08:06:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1771801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/one_and_only/pseuds/one_and_only
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Michael loves Lia and Lia loves Michael. Is it enough?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Even When The Earth Is Crumbling

It started out like a movie— Michael looked up across a crowded bar, he saw Lia laughing loudly. She was edgy and mysterious and beautiful. Her hair fell just below her chin, died pink. She was wearing a loose tank top that displayed the rose vine tattoo on her collarbone. A small gem was pierced in her nose. He went over and bought her a drink, they talked all night, Lia let Michael take her home. He woke up in her arms the next morning; he wanted to wake up with her every morning.

They began to date, got to know each other—there were things they loved and things they hated. Lia loved how Michael was so dedicated to music, but she hated how much time he spent playing video games. Michael loved how Lia was up for anything, but hated how she would come home high at least once a week. They got over what they disliked about each other because they liked each other so much, they decided it was worth it.

Of course every moment wasn’t perfect, but nothing is always perfect. They had their disagreements, but they also had their fine moments. Michael had flowers sent to her work on their month anniversary; Lia woke him up with kisses every morning.  They moved in together after four months, but Michael had been staying at Lia’s place most nights anyhow. For her birthday, Michael brought her on a scavenger hunt around the town of all their favorite places together. On their year anniversary, Lia told him she loved him. They knew each other and loved each other and it was comfortable.

They felt that they knew each other, but did they really? Michael began asking himself this more and more, when Lia was coming home late every night, high or drunk. Lia asked herself the same, before she went out without him, smoking or drinking. Lia got used to Michael already being up and out of bed when she awoke, Michael got used to Lia crawling into bed late at night, often after he was already asleep. Michael knew he loved her, and Lia knew she loved him. That’s what made it all worth it.

It was comfortable, it really was. It was comfortable to know that there was someone there, it was comfortable being MichaelandLia instead of Michael and Lia. So yes, it was comfortable in title. In reality? Michael barely knew if Lia was still the girl he fell in love with, and Lia didn’t know if Michael was ever the one for him, but she knew she loved him. She knew that more than anything.

And Michael knew he loved Lia. At least, he knew he had loved her. He didn’t know if she’d changed, or just become distant. And it pained him. He didn’t know what happened, he couldn’t figure it out. And he knew it was at least a part him, too, but he didn’t want to face Lia, he didn’t want to hear her say it. He didn’t want to hear Lia say what he could feel in his bones, what he knew had to be true.

She didn’t love him anymore. No, that wasn’t true. Lia thought it over and over again; she tried desperately to get through the timeline. She wanted to know what happened. She loved Michael. Michael had loved her, too, she thought. She had been skeptical, letting him in, and he had been wonderful, pushing through her barriers. She loved him, but was it enough?

Michael thought Lia didn’t love him anymore, but he didn’t want to let go. Not quite yet. The first year of their relationship was lovely, was perfect. There was some reason for that; they had something between them. If nothing else, it was raw sexual magnetism. But Michael cared for her still, after a year of the perfect relationship and even these past few months, the months where it had gone downhill.

Its not like they were fighting. If they had been, even that might be a step up from where they were—they didn’t speak to each other. Michael woke up and showered; by the time Lia awoke he was gone. She would study in the day, but by the time Michael came home she was out with friends, drinking or smoking or drinking and smoking. She would come in late at night, fall asleep on the other side of the bed, and they’d repeat the next day.

But at least she had someone to fall asleep next to; at least he had someone to wake up to. It was comfortable. Looking back, that’s probably why that stage of their relationship—the same cycle over and over again, never speaking, barely interacting. They stayed because it was a pattern, because it was familiar. There is discomfort in the unfamiliar, discomfort in the unknown.

Michael had had enough of it as they neared their two year anniversary, he couldn’t handle it any longer. Gone was even a trace of their fun relationship; gone were the things he loved about Lia. He could remember how he felt, but he couldn’t remember why he felt it, and he sure as hell didn’t feel it any longer. He had reached a point where he couldn’t live with this anymore; there was a cycle but where he stood and how Lia felt were all an uncertainty.

 The cycle, the predictability, the familiarity was certainly something to be missed. Michael cornered Lia about it, waited up for her every night until she came home sober and clean. He asked her; he asked her why she went out. He asked her why she went out without him every night; he asked why she never talked to him.

She didn’t respond for several moments. “Why,” she asked him, “are you trying to put all of this on me?” Calmly, she asked him this calmly, but the terrifying kind of calm, the kind of calm right before the volcano erupts. Which it did, of course, which _she_ did. That night was many things, and peaceful not among them. They screamed and they fought and they had angry sex and they fought again. This opened a whole new chapter of their relationship. The predictability was gone; the cycle was over. Lia smoked less, she drank less, she was home more. And Michael woke up later, stayed up later for her.

It didn’t help with the fighting. They spoke more, sure. Speak was a relative term, shouting was more like it. It was unpredictable and unstable and unhealthy. They communicated, and they fought, but there were also certain moments where it was normal. Scratch that—Michael and Lia didn’t even know what normal was anymore. But it was functional, sometimes, occasionally it was functional. They could fall asleep beside each other without feeling lonely.  They occasionally had sex without it being angry sex or makeup sex. They were finding their way back.

They were finding their way back, but at some point they got off trail again. They fought and screamed and fought all over again, other times it was silent. Sometimes the silence was worse than the fighting, the heartbreak of silence cut into both of their souls like a knife. The tables had turned, now it was Michael going out and Lia staying home, Lia avoiding him. Lia didn’t want to hear those words from him, those words she could feel. She knew how Michael felt, she knew he thought that they had to get out.

But what she didn’t know, what she walked in on three years into their relationship, was that Michael had been cheating on her, that’s why the roles switched. Michael had been sleeping with other girls, he was going out to some slut’s house all those times he went out late. Christa was her name. Michael had her over, he was fucking her _in their bed_ when Lia walked in on them, and the worst part, the worst part was that she couldn’t even be angry with him. Lia couldn’t be angry with Michael because she’d suspected this whole thing. And how did she know? Because after their first anniversary when Lia had grown all distant, when everything went to go to hell, she’d began to sleep with another bartender at the bar where she worked, the one she got high with. She’d ended it with him after a few months, and now here they were, four years into the relationship and they were repeating themselves.

So here they were. It started out perfect and now they were here. Michael loved Lia but hated Lia; he cared for her yet he hurt her. And Lia hated Michael yet loved him; she hurt him but cared for him nonetheless. They both cheated and they both lied. They both stuck around too long in a relationship that was too forced. Everything would be good, then distant and painful, then they would fight and do it all over again. It was dysfunctional and crazy and so undeniably Michael and Lia. It was the only thing Michael and Lia would ever be.

They loved each other, but was it enough? Was it worth all the pain? Michael and Lia knew one another better than anyone else in the world, and all the same didn’t know each other at all. When Michael looked at Lia he still saw flashes of the girl he loved, but he couldn’t love her like he used to.

So it was decided, they were ending it. Michael and Lia were no more. He packed up his stuff and moved in with his mates. Lia loved Michael and Michael loved Lia but it wasn’t enough. Michael needed peace and love and warmth. Lia needed adventure and fun and craziness. They were in love with each other. They could choose to stay together and fight it but at the end of the day, they needed to be Michael and Lia, not MichaelandLia.

 

 

 


End file.
